The program HiggsBounds is a well-established tool for testing Beyond-the-Standard Model (BSM) theories with an extended Higgs sector against experimental limits from collider searches at LEP, Tevatron and LHC. Thus far, it could be applied to any neutral or charged Higgs bosons originating from the modified Higgs sector. Implicitly, these particles were assumed to exhibit a somewhat hierarchical Yukawa structure as present in the Standard Model, where in particular the couplings to first generation fermions could be neglected. In this work, we extend the HiggsBounds functionalities to go beyond these restrictions, thus making the code applicable to any neutral or charged BSM scalars. Moreover, we develop a new approach to implement experimental searches whose kinematic acceptance depends significantly on the values of the involved couplings. We achieve this by recasting the searches to general scalar models. Using this approach we incorporate relevant current experimental limits from LHC searches for exotic scalars, and present the implications of these limits for a dark matter scalar mediator model, a flipped Two-Higgs-Doublet Model and a supersymmetric model with R-parity violation.
We describe recent developments of the public computer code HiggsBounds. In particular, these include the incorporation of LHC Higgs search results from Run 2 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, and an updated and extended framework for the theoretical input that accounts for improved Higgs cross section and branching ratio predictions and new search channels. We furthermore discuss an improved method used in HiggsBounds to approximately reconstruct the exclusion likelihood for LHC searches for non-standard Higgs bosons decaying to $ττ$ final states. We describe in detail the new and updated…
We discuss possible implications of Exotic Stringy instantons for Baryon-violating signatures in future colliders. In particular, we discuss high-energy quarks collisions and $Λ-\barΛ$ transitions. In principle, $Λ-\barΛ$ process can be probed by high-luminosity electron-positron colliders. However, we find that an extremely high luminosity is needed in order to provide a (somewhat) stringent bound compared to the current data on $NN\rightarrow ππ,KK$. On the other hand, (exotic) instanton-induced six quark interactions can be tested in near future high-energy colliders beyond LHC, at energies…
We propose a test for non-standard neutrino-neutrino interactions by using ultrahigh energy AGN neutrinos. Such interactions would influence the AGN neutrino flux due to collisions with cosmic background neutrinos. For typical AGN neutrinos we obtain an upper limit for the coupling constant $g<6.4\cdot 10^{-3}$ if the mediator is light and $g/(M_X/MeV) <0.013$ if the mediator is heavy. We compare our results with constraints from other phenomena previously considered.
It is shown that in a large class of E(6) models, either an e+e- collider operating at $\rs \geq 1.5$ TeV must find a signal for the production of exotic leptons, or a collider operating at $\rs \geq 300$ GeV must find at least one light neutral Higgs boson with a large invisible branching ratio. The region of parameter space where neither of these signals is visible can be excluded because here the lightest neutral exotic lepton, which is absolutely stable, would overclose the Universe.
We present a detailed comparison of coalescence and thermal-statistical models for the production of (anti-)(hyper-)nuclei in high-energy collisions. For the first time, such a study is carried out as a function of the size of the object relative to the size of the particle emitting source. Our study reveals large differences between the two scenarios for the production of objects with extended wave-functions. While both models give similar predictions and show similar agreement with experimental data for (anti-)deuterons and (anti-)3He nuclei, they largely differ in their description of (anti…
The ATLAS collaboration has recently reported a 2.6 sigma excess in the search for a heavy resonance decaying into a pair of weak gauge bosons. Only fully hadronic final states are being looked for in the analysis. If the observed excess really originates from the gauge bosons' decays, other decay modes of the gauge bosons would inevitably leave a trace on other exotic searches. In this paper, we propose the use of the Z boson decay into a pair of neutrinos to test the excess. This decay leads to a very large missing energy and can be probed with conventional dark matter searches at the LHC. W…
We investigate the prospects for producing new, light, hidden states at a future $e^+ e^-$ collider in a Higgsed dark $U(1)_D$ model, which we call the Double Dark Portal model. The simultaneous presence of both vector and scalar portal couplings immediately modifies the Standard Model Higgsstrahlung channel, $e^+ e^- \to Zh$, at leading order in each coupling. In addition, each portal leads to complementary signals which can be probed at direct and indirect detection dark matter experiments. After accounting for current constraints from LEP and LHC, we demonstrate that a future $e^+ e^-$ Higg…
We discuss the contributions of higher order terms in weak Hamiltonian to the standard two-neutrino double beta decay. The formalism for the unique first forbidden transitions has been developed, and it is shown that they can alter the two-electron energy spectrum. Yet, their effect is too small to screen the detection of exotic neutrinoless double beta decays, which are candidates for testing the physics beyond the standard model.
We discuss possible implications of the recent detection by the LIGO and VIRGO collaboration of the gravitational-wave event GW170817, the signal of which is consistent with predictions in general relativity on the merging of neutron stars. A near-simultaneous and spatially correlated observation of a gamma-ray burst, the GRB 170817A signal, was achieved independently by the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, and by the Anti-coincidence Shield for the Spectrometer of the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory. Motivated by this near temporal and spatial concomitance of events, which can o…
In general, charged Higgs bosons $H^\pm$ appear in non-minimal Higgs models. The $H^\pm W^\mp Z$ vertex is known to be related to the violation of the global symmetry (custodial symmetry) in the Higgs sector. Its magnitude strongly depends on the structure of the exotic Higgs models which contain higher isospin $SU(2)_L$ representations such as triplet Higgs bosons. We study the possibility of measuring the $H^\pm W^\mp Z$ vertex via single charged Higgs boson production associated with the $W^\pm$ boson at the International Linear Collider (ILC) by using the recoil method. The feasibility of …
The spectroscopic parameters and decay channels of the doubly charged scalar, pseudoscalar and axial-vector charm-strange tetraquarks $Z_{ \overline{c}s}=[sd][\overline u \overline c]$ are explored within framework of the QCD sum rule. The masses and current couplings of these diquark-antidiquark states are calculated by means of two-point correlation functions and taking into account the vacuum condensates up to eight dimensions. To compute the strong couplings of $Z_{\overline{c}s}$ states with $D,\ D_{s},\ D^{\ast},\ D_{s}^{\ast},\ D_{s1}(2460),\ D_{s0}^{\ast}(2317),\ π$ and $K$ mesons we u…
Testing lepton-flavor-violating decay of doubly charged Higgs bosons in type-II seesaw via photon fusion at the high-energy LHC
School of Microelectronics and Control Engineering, Changzhou University（常州大学微电子与控制工程学院）；Physics Department and Institute of Theoretical Physics, Nanjing Normal University（南京师范大学物理系和理论物理研究所）；Nanjing Key Laboratory of Particle Physics and Astrophysics（南京粒子物理与天体物理重点实验室）
The Georgi-Machacek (GM) model is one of many Beyond Standard Model scenarios with an extended scalar sector which can group under the custodial $\rm SU(2)_C$ symmetry into a fiveplet, a triplet, and two singlets. The heavy charged custodial fiveplet Higgs $\rm H_5^{\pm}$ are typical particles in GM model which couple to the electroweak gauge bosons, therefore provide a good testing ground for the detection of the $\rm H^\pm W^\mp Z$ vertex. The neutral custodial fiveplet Higgs $\rm H_5^{0}$ in the GM model has the same mass with $\rm H_5^{\pm}$ and couples to the electroweak gauge bosons $\rm…
The atmospheric neutrino data collected by the Super-Kamiokande experiment span about four decades in neutrino energy E, and are thus appropriate to probe the energy dependence of the oscillation wavelength λassociated to nu_mu<--->nu_tau flavor transitions, when these are assumed to explain the data. Such dependence takes the form λ^{-1}\propto E^n in a wide class of theoretical models, including ``standard'' oscillations due to neutrino mass and mixing (n=-1), energy-independent oscillations (n=0), and violations of the equivalence principle or of Lorentz invariance (n=1). We study first how…
In the context of the gauge coupling unification, we present a comprehensive analysis of the extensions of the Standard Model with vector-like fermions and scalars. We find 145 models that satisfy the unification condition, which are distinguishable by the number of new particles in the spectrum and by their transformation properties under the gauge symmetry group of the Standard Model. For all models we derive lower bounds on the exotic fermion and scalar masses, stemming from the measurement of the strong gauge coupling scale dependence, from the heavy stable charged particle searches, and f…
Testing the properties of the Higgs particle discovered at the LHC and searching for new physics signals, are some of the most important tasks of Particle Physics today. Current measurements of the Higgs couplings to fermions and gauge bosons, seem consistent with the Standard Model, and when taken as a function of the particle mass, should lay on a single line. However, in models with an extended Higgs sector the diagonal Higgs couplings to up-quarks, down-quarks and charged leptons, could lay on different lines, while non-diagonal flavor-violating Higgs couplings could appear too. We describ…
